Honey, honey!

A hive of feral bees has been making their home at Coronado Historic Site…

…for the past two or three years. Unfortunately, these bees decided that the best place to store their honeycomb was inside the parapet wall of the historic John Gaw Meem visitors’ center. This causes significant long-term damage to the building, and it means the bees regularly swarm near the portal during the summer.

Richard Sims, Director of New Mexico Historic Sites, recently approved a plan to remove the bees from the building and relocate them. Tyler Schutte of New Mexico Bee Removal (JTylerSchutte@live.com) began the process of removal on August 3rd, 2015. He was able to remove the queen and a majority of an estimated 60,000 worker bees with a specialized vacuum. He also removed approximately 30 pounds of honeycomb. He will return several times in order to capture as many of the worker bees as possible.

Once removal of the bees is complete, the building will be repaired and returned to its original appearance.